


All These Things I'm Saying to You

by jannika



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, OT5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 03:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jannika/pseuds/jannika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magic!AU. Zayn can travel the realms but doesn’t have a home, Harry is a prince trying to break a curse, Louis is a pirate without a crew, Liam is a sheriff who can’t remember his past, and Niall is a werewolf who has never once eaten anyone. Or, curses, kissing, pirate ships, vanishing kingdoms, true love, polyamory and cinnamon rolls</p>
            </blockquote>





	All These Things I'm Saying to You

**Author's Note:**

> Very, very, very incredibly loosely sort of a Once Upon a Time AU. Only really just borrowed their world building. Mostly I took the idea of jumping from realm to realm and the idea that all curses can be broken. No other actual relation the canon of OUAT. Mostly it’s just magic and feelings. It also ended up at polyamory. This is the first thing I’ve written in months, and I’m excited that it exists. Dedicated to, as always, to the Liam to my Zayn and my very favorite girl.

As always, it takes Zayn a minute to figure out where he is when he opens his eyes. It’s probably something he should be used to by now, but it’s still disorienting, more in the mornings when he first wakes up than when he lands after each jump, although both are dizzying. He blinks in the dark. The faint sunlight coming in the windows isn’t giving enough light to really help him out here, so he runs a thumb over the comforter. The quality of bed linens is often telling, really. The fabric is soft and thick and warm, and he grins, remembering. It’s a good morning, then. He stands and wraps the palace covers around himself a little tighter, just for a minute. Harry always insists this room is top of the line when Zayn stops in. He worries, he always worries. He also refers to this room as being Zayn’s room, but Zayn ignores that, because he doesn’t really live anywhere. Hasn’t. Not in years now. Still, he finds himself here more than most places. 

There’s a knock on the door then, breakfast, Zayn expects, Harry is always great about that too. The food alone here is always worth the visit. Instead, when Zayn calls out, “come in,” it’s Harry who pops his head in.

“Morning,” he says. 

“Hello,” Zayn says back, smiling a little, still sleepy. 

“Did I wake you?” Harry asks.

“Was up, come in,” Zayn says. Harry bites his lip and does. Always worried, Harry is basically always worried. It’s probably a natural side effect of spending the better part of his life trying to break a curse. 

“Did you remember this morning?” Harry asks, sitting down in a large, plush chair across from Zayn.

“Where I was? Or was there something else I’m meant to have remembered?”

“Where you were.”

“Not at first,” Zayn says, shrugging his covers off. 

“Might help if you stayed awhile,” Harry says. Zayn shrugs. They have this conversation all the time. Zayn’s pretty sure it’s his own side effect- after years of jumping from realm to realm, world to world, after years of sending himself through dimensions, closing his eyes on one end an opening them on the other, the world new and changed, it only makes sense that now every time he opens his eyes it takes a while, that he doesn’t know where he’ll be. Harry likes to say that it’s because Zayn doesn’t stay put long enough to get used to the feel of waking up anywhere. 

“Doubt it,” Zayn says. 

“How long are you staying?” Harry asks. 

“I never know, do I?” Zayn says. Harry shakes his head. All that worry. 

“Where were you before?”

“Not at sea,” Zayn says, smirking. 

“I didn’t, that’s not why I asked,” Harry says, pulling on his own hair. 

“It is,” Zayn says, “But I haven’t seen him, not since I saw you last anyway.”

“Right,” Harry says, frowning, thinking. 

“You okay?” Zayn asks. 

“I was, I had an idea, since you’re here,” Harry says. 

“An idea?”

“It might not work,” Harry says, still frowning. 

“What?”

“It’s just, all curses can be broken, right?” Harry says, standing up and crossing the floor to sit next to Zayn on the bed. 

“I’ve heard that one,” Zayn says. Harry’s kingdom is under this curse where it’s slowly disappearing, bit by bit, and eventually that will include the people in it as well. As crowned Prince, Harry’s been given the responsibility of saving his people from this fate. It hasn’t, in all the time Zayn has known him, been going all that well.

“Do you think it’s true?” Harry asks. 

“They say it is,” Zayn says. Harry looks extra worried this morning, extra troubled.

“But this isn’t, I’m not fighting a person turned into an animal, here. This morning, there was,” Harry stops, pulling on his own hair again.

“Was what?”

“The grass,” Harry says. 

“What about it?”

“It’s not green this morning,” Harry says, pulling a handful of sickly gray looking grass out of his pocket, “And if we’re starting to lose colors, if, I’m running out of time.”

“I’m sorry,” Zayn says, and he means it. He likes it here, and Harry is too good of a guy to not be able to save the day. It shouldn’t work that way. 

“Zayn,” Harry says. 

“Yeah?”

“Do you, um, am I your favorite?” Harry says.

“Meaning?”

“Of all the places you go, and the people you see, am I, it’s your favorite here, right?” Harry asks. 

“I don’t know,” Zayn says. He doesn’t have favorites, that’s a lot like having a home, and he doesn’t. Not anymore. 

“You do,” Harry prompts, sort of begging. 

“Why does it matter?” Zayn asks. Harry grabs his hand. 

“Because all curses can be broken,” he says. 

“And?”

“And so I need to know if I’m your favorite, because, I thought-” Harry stops and shakes his head and mutters under his breath and the leans forward and plants his lips on Zayn’s. And. It’s nice, actually, eager and sort of desperate and Zayn arches into it, kissing back and licking at Harry’s lips until it hits him. He suddenly understands what this is and he pulls back and scoots away from Harry, quickly.

“Oh,” Zayn says, slowly. Harry stares down at the grass in his hand, still limp and gray. 

“I just thought, maybe,” Harry says. 

“You said this is a lot more than turning someone back from an animal,” Zayn says. 

“I read that it was the most powerful, that what works for everything is,” Harry stops again and blushes, “sorry.”

“I can’t break your curse, Harry,” Zayn says. 

“It’s different when you’re here, though. It is, and I thought, it’s better, and I,” Harry says. 

“I’m here this morning and the grass is gray,” Zayn says. 

“Not outside your window,” Harry says. 

“What?”

“It’s all gray, but this patch right outside your window. And maybe it’s just because you’re not actually part of this kingdom, but I had to try,” Harry says. 

“You and I, aren’t, though. You know we’re not, right?” Zayn asks. 

“You’re the closest thing I know, though,” Harry says. Zayn shakes his head. He can’t fault Harry for trying. They do say that almost any curse can be broken with True Love’s Kiss. That’s just. That’s not what they have.

“I know,” Zayn says. 

“And if it is the most powerful, I can’t just go around kissing all my subjects until everything is better. I’ve tried that, it didn’t work and most of them tried to follow me home,” Harry says.

“You’ve tried that?”

“Only once, for about six hours, I thought to myself, what if it does work and my true love is right here. So I went and started conversations and kissed about seven different villagers and two nobles. Nothing,” Harry says. 

“Somehow I doubt that’s the answer to your problems,” Zayn says. 

“I know.”

“Not a total waste of a day though, maybe?” Zayn asks, teasing. Harry frowns again.

“A complete waste,” Harry says. 

“Sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry says. 

“It’s okay,” Zayn says. It is, really. He doesn’t mind kissing Harry, actually. The idea of it is sort of warm and nice, but this isn’t the part he plays, he can’t help. He can’t kiss Harry if Harry is hoping it will break the curse. 

“Sorry,” Harry says again.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Zayn?” Harry asks. 

“Yeah?”

“I still wish you’d stay.” Harry says. 

“I can’t,” Zayn says. 

“I think you could,” Harry says, “but I’ll be here next time you come back.”

“I really, I can’t,” Zayn says. Harry leans over and kisses Zayn’s forehead. 

“That’s what you always say,” he says. “I’m going to send breakfast up for you and try to break a curse. Find me before you leave, yeah?”

“Sure,” Zayn says. 

He doesn’t. He should, and he means to, but on the way out he gets curious and goes to look and see if the grass below his window really is the only green grass. It is green, a brilliant bright that contrasts the dull all around it, but stretching out from it, there is a thin line of green, a tiny little line of bright cutting through the gray, from Zayn’s patch to the wall under the window he knows is Harry’s bedroom. 

He can’t go see Harry now, not if Harry’s seen that. He can’t be asked to talk about what it means, he can’t be asked to stay again. He can’t break Harry’s curse. He knows he can’t. 

So he pulls on his hat, and closes his eyes, and jumps. 

****

He’s getting a book when it happens. There is this realm he loves, absolutely loves, because it has more books than he’s ever seen anywhere else, shelves and shoppes and whole buildings filled with them, and when Zayn comes here at night he can sit on the building floors and read about lands even he can’t travel to. He’s reaching for a book in this realm one night, three days after Harry and his grass, when someone clears his throat.  
“Um,” the throat-clearer says. Zayn turns around to see a tall, broad shouldered guy in what looks like it might be a police uniform of sorts. Maybe. Zayn has never bothered to get overly familiar with this realm, only their books. “You can’t actually be here right now,” the possible police officer says. 

“Oh?” Zayn says. 

“The library is closed for the day, you’re trespassing. Did you break in?” the guy asks. 

“Not exactly,” Zayn says. Because really, it’s not like realm jumping requires breaking locks. 

“I’m going to need to see your ID,” the guy says. He’s got really nice eyes, Zayn notices. 

“My what?”

“Your ID? Your identification?”

“I’m pretty sure I don’t have one of those,” Zayn says. 

“You’re not from this town, are you? I know everyone,” the guy says. 

“No,” Zayn says.

“You’re in a strange town sitting in a library at two in the morning without ID?”

“I guess?” Zayn says. He might have wanted to learn the rules of this realm then, a little. 

“I’m going to need you to come with me,” the guy says.

“Where?”

“The police station,” the guy says. He sounds almost apologetic. He leads Zayn out of the library and down a small street to what is apparently the police station. He asks more questions on the way, but Zayn doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have any answers to give, really. Inside he sits Zayn down on a chair. Zayn is sort of expecting to be thrown in a jail cell, but then the guy says, “Are you like, lost? Do you need a place to stay?”

“Um,” Zayn says.

“Look, I don’t really want to arrest you or anything,” the guy says.

“Right.”

“So how about if you just tell me your name and what you’re doing here and why you hang out in libraries at two am and then I’ll see if I can help, okay?” 

“What if I just tell you my name?” Zayn says. 

“It would be a start,” the guy says. “I’m Liam, by the way. Or um, Sheriff Payne.”

“Zayn.”

“Okay, Zayn. Are you lost?” Sheriff Liam repeats. Zayn raises an eyebrow. When Liam says his name his voice sounds a lot like, his accent is a lot like, well, Harry’s. Which doesn’t make any sense at all.

“No,” Zayn says. 

“Were you planning to sleep in the library?”

“No.”

“Okay. Where are you from?” Liam says. 

“Not here?” Zayn says, shrugging. Liam sighs. 

“Okay, then.” 

“Going to arrest me now?” Zayn asks. Not that it matters- whether he gets arrested or doesn’t, he’s giving this about ten more minutes before he jumps out.

“I’d rather not,” Liam says.

“You’re the sheriff,” Zayn says. 

“Yes?”

“So isn’t arresting people sort of your whole job?” Zayn asks. Liam shakes his head.

“We don’t have a lot of crime around here, to be honest. It’s small, mostly I answer the phone and hand out parking tickets. Sometimes lock down drunks for the night,” Liam says, and his voice does that thing again. Zayn frowns. 

“Oh,” he says. 

“Something wrong?” Liam asks. Zayn shakes his head, he’s honestly not paid enough attention, maybe they all talk like that here. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Maybe it’s nothing.

“Well, I do have a possible arrest hanging over my head,” Zayn says instead. 

“Not really, though,” Liam says, “Look, I’m not from here either, yeah? I was new once and I just sort of wandered around for awhile before I settled in. If you plan to stay it’s nice here and I can help, as long as you stop breaking and entering.”

“Where are you from?” Zayn asks, even though he shouldn’t. Even though Liam probably means not from this town but still from this realm. After all, most people spend their whole life in the realm they start in, because that’s where they belong, because that’s where their stories happen. That’s home. 

“I don’t actually know, I can’t remember. I just, the first thing I can remember was being here,” Liam says. 

“How long have you been here?” 

“About five years,” Liam says. 

“So you’re missing like, what, two decades of memories?” Zayn asks. 

“Yeah,” Liam says, shrugging again. 

“Are you,” Zayn starts, but then he stops himself. He was going to ask if Liam was cursed somehow, but he’s pretty sure, from what he does know of this universe, that curses don’t actually happen here. At least not very often. 

“Am I?” Liam questions.

“Never mind,” Zayn says. The thought is nagging at him, though. The accent, the lack of memories, they’re probably nothing. But.

“So, do you need a place to stay?” Liam asks. 

“I’m fine,” Zayn says. 

“Well, here’s the thing. I’m going to need to know where you’re staying before I let you go. So you should probably just come sleep on my sofa,” Liam says. 

“So I sort of am under arrest then?” Zayn asks. 

“I need to know you’re going somewhere safe. I am sheriff, and it’s supposed to hail later. I can’t have people getting hurt in a storm,” Liam says. 

“You’re just going to invite me to your home?” Zayn asks.

“Well, it’s too late to check into the hotel, and no one else is up at this hour,” Liam says. 

“I’m a stranger, I could be dangerous,” Zayn says. 

“Nah,” Liam says, grinning. 

“No?”

“I figure if you were dangerous, you’d have broken into somewhere that wasn’t the library,” Liam says. 

“You don’t know what sort of books I was after,” Zayn throws back. Liam grins. He seems very at ease, all things considered. He reaches into his pocket and hands Zayn out a set of keys. 

“I live upstairs. Go sleep. You can take the sofa or my bed, actually. I have work to do still,” Liam says. 

“I really don’t need you to do this,” Zayn says. 

“Feel free to take whatever from my fridge too, if you’re hungry,” Liam says, like Zayn hasn’t said anything. Zayn stares at the keys in his hand, weighing his options. He should really just take them, go up to Liam’s home, and then jump. It’s the best plan. 

“You don’t know me,” Zayn says. 

“If you stay here, I will,” Liam says, smiling again. 

“I won’t though,” Zayn says, “stay.”

“You might change your mind. The air is great here, and we’ve got the best bakery right down the block. I’ll bring you their bread for breakfast in the morning,” Liam says. 

“I won’t be here in the morning.”

“Okay,” Liam says, “Sleep first though, wait out the storm at least.”

“Okay,” Zayn hears himself say. Because, really. If he just gets upstairs, he can jump out and forget about all of this. 

“Good,” Liam says, “I really do have work to do.”

“Okay,” Zayn says again. They nod at each and then Zayn climbs the stairs to Liam’s place, unlocking the door and letting himself in. He glances around for any signs, for anything else out of place in this realm, but everything looks ordinary. He pulls his hat out of his back pocket and puts it on, but before he closes his eyes and jumps, he finds a marker and a sheet of paper on Liam’s table and scrawls a quick note.

Sheriff, 

Thanks. 

Zayn

He doesn’t know what else to say, but he he thinks he needs to say something. So he leaves it that. At least he said thanks.

He’s not a bad guy, really.

****

“Bad timing, Z,” Niall says, when Zayn opens his eyes and finds himself in the forest.

“On the run again?” Zayn asks, whispering.

“Fucking five of them today, been tracking me. I tried to talk to them like this, you know, throw them off? They’re still picking up the scent, following me.” Niall says. 

“Sorry,” Zayn says. 

“It wasn’t even me this time. But you know how it is, chickens go missing, and then someone sees a bit of fur around and suddenly the big bad wolf is going to eat their children and the hunt is on and I have to move. Again,” Niall says. 

“Do you need me to go?” Zayn asks.

“Nah, I’m okay for now, I’ve got a good hour before they find me again. You know, I have never once eaten a child! That’s a stereotype and I resent it.”

“It’s the teeth,” Zayn says. 

“These people steal each other’s chickens and blame me, and they never know they’ve got it all wrong.” Niall says. Niall is a werewolf, although the most unusual one Zayn has ever met. He only turns during the full moon, or when he needs to for self defense, and before he every full moon he eats his fill, as a human, of everything he can get his hands on. He then drinks as much as possible, and then spends the majority of the time he’s in wolf form fast asleep in a cave. 

“I know,” Zayn says. Niall scowls, then grins. He never does hold a temper for very long.

“I didn’t like it here anyway. You’ve seen it everywhere, anywhere you’d recommend?” Niall asks. 

“Not really,” Zayn says. 

“I’ll find somewhere. There must be somewhere with wolf-hunting laws or something,” Niall says. 

“If I hear of anywhere, I’ll let you know,” Zayn says. 

“Thanks,” Niall says, “you here for any reason?”

“I’m not sure,” Zayn says. 

“You never are,” Niall says. 

“Have you ever heard of a curse sending someone to another realm?” Zayn asks. Niall raises an eyebrow.

“I’ve never known anyone but you who could travel realms,” Niall says. 

“Right, but a really powerful spell or curse, could it get someone across a realm?” 

“Not that I’ve ever heard of, but I guess it’s possible,” Niall says. 

“I’ve never heard of it either,” Zayn says, shaking his head. 

“Why do you ask?”

“Someone I saw in another realm, I wondered,” Zayn says. 

“Wouldn’t they know if they’re from another realm?” Niall says. 

“He’d lost his memories,” Zayn says.

“Ah. Fuck, then. I don’t know,” Niall says. Zayn nods. He doesn’t know either, but he’s been pondering it, been thinking about Liam a lot. He doesn’t think it’s true, he doesn’t, not really. But. 

“It’s just, a story I’ve heard about someone who disappeared, this person, it could have been?” Zayn says. 

“Vanished but actually sent to another realm without your memories? That would be a really powerful curse,” Niall says. 

“Yeah,” Zayn says. 

“Is this person happy where they are now?” Niall asks.

“Seems to be?” 

“Then does it matter?” Niall asks. 

“I guess not,” Zayn says, even though that’s not true. If his suspicion is true, then it matters very, very much. Besides, people should be in the realms they belong in. When you belong somewhere, that shouldn’t be taken from you. You should get to stay.

“Are you running with me, or jumping out?” Niall says. 

“Jumping out, probably,” Zayn says, “good luck.”

“Thanks, find me again soon, alright? I worry about you when it’s been too long,” Niall says, grinning as he says it. Zayn likes this about talking to Niall, the way there is no pressure, ever, the way it’s easy. It’s nice to have someone care without feeling guilty about it. 

“I will,” Zayn says. 

He jumps out just as the footsteps of the hunting party start to fall, heavily, closing in.

****

He heads back to Liam’s realm, he’s not sure why. He just needs to know. He needs to prove that he’s wrong, he needs to shake these thoughts. He opens his eyes in the center of town, and after the disorientation falls away, he heads toward the bakery Liam had pointed out. It looks warm, and it smells good even from the outside. Liam’s on the inside, leaning against the counter, talking to the girl who is wrapping a pastry for him. He does look happy. 

The thing is, though. The thing is, Harry tells this story, about when the curse had first hit, just over five years ago, a few months before Zayn had met him. When the curse hit their land the very first thing that happened was that their sheriff had vanished in the night. The kingdom hasn’t been able to fill the post since. The sheriff himself had been a friend of Harry’s, they’d grown up together, and he’d only just taken the job a few months before, becoming the youngest sheriff the kingdom had ever had. 

It’s probably not possible, Harry’s friend is probably long dead, or turned into a mouse, that’s how these things work. But. Liam is. Sort of exactly what Harry has always described. Inside, Liam pays the girl and then turns around, spotting Zayn at the window. He beams and heads out. Zayn should turn around, but he doesn’t. He just. Waits. 

“You’re still here,” Liam says. 

“Not really,” Zayn says. 

“Did you find somewhere to stay?”

“I’m good,” Zayn says. 

“Well, I know you’re not sleeping in the library, I’ve been checking. I’ve also been checking the bookshoppe on Garden Street, and the school libraries,” Liam says. 

“You’ve been looking for me?”

“Keeping the town safe,” Liam returns. He unwraps his pastry and breaks it in half. “Here.”

“I’m not hungry,” Zayn says. 

“Trust me, you want this,” Liam says, holding a piece out to Zayn.

“It’s really okay.”

“There’s no nuts or anything, if you’re worried about allergies?” Liam says. The pastry in his hand does look good, and warm, and sugary. Zayn grins a little. “Plus, you’d be helping me out. Every time I eat an entire one of these I’m sorry.”

“Well, if it’s to help an officer of the law,” Zayn says, reaching out to grab it from Liam’s hand. Liam’s got these gloves on, navy blue without fingertips on them, and the base of his thumb grazes Zayn’s palm as Zayn takes his piece. Zayn feels the touch in his whole body. Liam flushes like maybe he did too. 

“Um, enjoy,” Liam says, staring at Zayn’s hand a little. Zayn quickly takes a bite, mostly for a distraction, but then, when it melts in his mouth, warm and gooey, it seems like the best choice he possibly could have made, no matter what. 

“Whoa,” Zayn says, swallowing. 

“They’re the best cinnamon rolls on the coast, or so I’m told,” Liam says. 

“I believe it,” Zayn says. Liam grins.

“Can I ask you a really strange question?” Liam asks. 

“I guess so.”

“Do I, I don’t know you, do I? Like, from before? From when I don’t remember?” Liam asks. 

“We’ve never met,” Zayn says, swallowing another mouthful.

“Okay,” Liam says. 

“Why?”

“You just seem, there is something familiar about you. Maybe we’re just from the same place? Only I don’t know where I’m from and you won’t tell me where you’re from,” Liam says. 

“I’m not really from anywhere,” Zayn says, and it’s true, mostly. 

“Everyone is from somewhere,” Liam says, then he shakes his head, “although, I suppose I’m not. It doesn’t count if I don’t remember.”

“It counts,” Zayn says. 

“You could be from here, now, if you wanted,” Liam says. 

“I’m not from anywhere,” Zayn says again. Liam shakes his head. 

“Well, if you ever decide you want to be, if you ever want a couch or a cinnamon roll, or like, help with the law, I’ll be here,” Liam says. 

“What if,” Zayn says, and then. He might be reading this all very wrong. It’s very possibly Liam is just really friendly. It’s very possible Liam was married in the life he can’t remember. It’s also very possible Liam is actually Harry’s vanished friend. It’s also, the thing about realm jumping is that there is something freeing about it. If Zayn has a bad encounter, if something doesn’t go right, he can just never come back to those realms, he can just leave forever. So, even though he would miss the books, and now the cinnamon rolls, he takes a chance and says, “What if I want a drink?”

“A drink?” Liam repeats, then flushes, again, “Oh. Like. Oh.”

“Yeah,” Zayn says. He figures that if they got a drink and talked more he might be able to figure out if Liam really is who Zayn thinks he is. He also just wants to get a drink with Liam and his broad shoulders and pretty eyes and rambling sentences. 

“Okay,” Liam says. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I, there is only one bar around here, really, but. We could,” Liam says. 

“I’d like that,” Zayn says. 

“When?” Liam asks, blushing and biting his lip. No matter what realm Liam belongs to, Zayn would really like to see him do that more.

“Next time I’m here,” Zayn says.

“When will that be?” Liam asks. 

“Soon,” Zayn says, “I’ll find you.”

“Okay,” Liam says, biting the inside of his cheek now. 

“I’ll be back,” Zayn says. 

“I’ll be here,” Liam says. Zayn finishes his cinnamon roll, and then smiles at Liam again. 

“Soon,” he says again, and then he turns around and walks into an alley so he can put his hat on and jump before Liam can say anything else. 

 

****

When Zayn was young, when he’d first started jumping, he’d had this notion he wanted to be a pirate. He’d thought that realm jumping was sort of like living at sea, tied to no kingdom, tied to no rules. He’d thought he’d fit in, so he’d gone to a bar and ordered and watched all the pirates and tried to learn how they behaved, tried to learn all the things they did. He’d watched until he’d felt like he could handle it, and then he’d jumped onto a boat, only to instantly be called a stowaway, his hat had been stolen, and he’d and locked in the ship’s dungeon. That’s where he’d first met Louis, locked in the dirty dungeon. Hands and feet tied, they’d planned their escape. They’d sat for hours and talked about the things they’d do when they were out, when it was their ship. They’d recruited every other person who’d gotten locked up to their cause. Louis had run an entire dungeon society, a whole kingdom under a ship, honestly, divvying up their food scraps and earning loyalty and plotting with Zayn by his side. They’d whispered in the dark, and sometimes, more often the longer it was, their hands would slip out of ropes and into each other’s. They’d figured out ways to slot their legs together, they’d kissed and touched and been sure they when they got out they’d have the whole world at their feet. 

They did too, for a glorious few weeks, they did. They lead a rebellion, a mutiny, and they took down the ship, and they made it their own. Teenagers with a ship and crew at their disposal. Louis had known about Zayn’s ability, he’d said one day they’d use it to rule not just this realm but all of them. And then, after they found his at in a drawer in the captain’s desk, Zayn had said he needed to go home, he still had one then, just for a week or two. It was the plan. 

He didn’t make it back for over a year. Louis has never really forgiven him. Still, he comes to Louis’ ship, or what’s left of it, as often as he can, maybe more than he should. 

“Lou?” he says, after the scent of salt water makes him remember where he is.

“Thought you weren’t coming back this time,” Louis says. He’s sitting against the ship’s mast, rum in hand. That’s how Zayn normally finds him these days. 

“I always come back,” Zayn says, crossing over to sit with him. 

“Where you been?” Louis asks. 

“Around.”

“Have you seen him?” Louis asks. 

“The grass is gray,” Zayn says. Louis shakes his head.

“There has to be something he hasn’t tried,” Louis says. 

“He tried kissing me,” Zayn says. Louis raises an eyebrow and passes Zayn his rum.

“Tried or did?” Louis asks. 

“Did.”

“Still cursed?” 

“Still cursed,” Zayn says, taking a long sip of the rum. 

“Well, maybe, if I hadn’t been banished, I could help,” Louis says, bitterly. 

“His father banished you, he had nothing to do with that,” Zayn says. 

“The result’s the same though, isn’t it. My crew in jail, me on this ship, alone,” Louis says. 

“You could dock somewhere, stay in another kingdom,” Zayn says. Louis laughs bitterly. 

“You are the last person in this or any realm to talk about anyone staying anywhere. This ship is my home,” Louis says. 

“Sorry,” Zayn says. 

“You’ve got your worried face on, stop it,” Louis says. 

“I do worry,” Zayn says. Louis is, Louis had been first, and Louis is important still in ways that Zayn can’t talk about. It’s. Weeks ago, Harry had said Zayn was the closest thing he knew to true love. Zayn thinks the closest he’s ever actually been was Louis. Their kisses hadn’t exactly lifted any curses, though. 

“Liar,” Louis says, scowling at him. 

“What?”

“Your worried face is a fucking lie and I’m sick of it,” Louis says, snatching his rum out of Zayn’s hands. This has happened a lot lately too, the temper, the moods, Louis has just. When he lost his crew, when he’d been called a villain in front of a while kingdom, when pirates had been banished because a cursed kingdom had enough to worry about without them, Louis had just. Fallen apart a little. A lot. And Zayn is worried. He is. 

“Louis,” Zayn says. 

“Go away,” Louis says. 

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do. Because you’ll go anyway, you’re so fucking worried, but you never stay. You can’t care if you’re not here.”

“You know I care,” Zayn says.

“Go away,” Louis says again, “leave on your grand adventures, I’ll be here, on my falling apart ship. Alone.”

“I’ve said, I’ve said you could come,” Zayn says. 

“And I’ve told you I can’t leave my ship,” Louis says. 

“And I’ve told you I can’t stay,” Zayn says. Louis scowls and stands up. 

“Just, if you’re going to go, go now. And maybe, don’t, don’t come back if you’re not going to stay,” Louis says. Zayn feels like Louis has stabbed him. 

“Louis,” Zayn says again. 

“This is still my ship, and I still demand loyalty,” Louis says. 

“You’re drunk.”

“And you’re leaving,” Louis says. He turns away, arms crossed. Zayn doesn’t know what to do, so he does what Louis says, and he puts his hat on, and he closes his eyes. Right before he jumps he hears Louis mutter,

“It was our ship, once.”

****

Harry is lying with his head on a piano when Zayn pops in. 

“Hello, Zayn. It’s Harry, you’re in my quickly disappearing kingdom. Enjoy your stay, it might be your last.”

“What’s happening now?” Zayn asks. His head is still reeling from Louis, everything in him hurts. 

“There isn’t music,” Harry says, and he throws his hands heavily on the piano keys in front of him to make his point. 

“Oh,” Zayn says. 

“Yeah, music, it’s gone. I’ve got a line around the door of concerned villagers who can’t sing anymore, who can’t play instruments anymore. It’s happening. We’re just,” Harry stops. 

“I’m so sorry,” Zayn says. Harry glares at him. 

“You left, last time. You just left.”

“I know,” Zayn says. 

“What if you had come back and I was gone? If this castle was ruins?” Harry asks. He looks angry, and Zayn doesn’t blame him. 

“You’re here,” Zayn says. 

“There’s no music,” Harry says again. He’s got frustrated tears in the corner of his eyes and Zayn sits down beside him and grabs his hand. 

“I saw him,” Zayn says. 

“And?”

“And he’s mad at me, he’s mad at everything,” Zayn says. 

“I know the feeling,” Harry says. 

“You could, couldn’t you lift the ban?” Zayn asks. 

“So he could vanish along with the rest of us? He’s lucky not to be here,” Harry says. 

“But his crew is here, and they’ll go, and he can’t stop it, and it’s really hard for him,” Zayn says. 

“I honestly can’t lift the ban, at least not without a huge push through my advisors, which would probably take longer than we have,” Harry says. Years ago, in the early days of the curse, right after Zayn had first met Harry, he’d brought Louis into the kingdom, and Louis had docked his ship and his crew had spend a good solid three days on dry land. Harry, Zayn, and Louis had gotten drunk, and talked, and talked more, and Harry and Louis had fought about leadership, about piracy versus royalty. They’d been magnetic at each other, talking long after Zayn fell asleep, sometimes with voices raised, other times whispering softly, their heads leaned into each other. Then the richest man in the kingdom, had, in the absence of a sheriff, taken the law into his own hands when he found one of Louis’ crewmen and his giggling daughter behind her closed door. He had them all arrested, and told the king, Harry’s father, he’d be pulling out all of his money if they all weren’t kept there and if Louis wasn’t kicked out. The kingdom had been struggling enough, with the curse and all, and financial ruin wasn’t an option.

“Oh,” Zayn says. 

“Yeah. I’m running out of time, for everything,” Harry says. 

“I’m sorry,” Zayn says again. 

“Me too,” Harry says, “I’ve tried everything.”

“I know you have,” Zayn says. 

“Did you leave last time, did you go because I kissed you? I didn’t mean for it to make you go,” Harry says. 

“That wasn’t why,” Zayn says. 

“Good,” Harry says, “then can we, I want to try something else.”

“I thought you said you’d tried everything,” Zayn says. 

“I just thought of this,” Harry says, then he picks up their already laced together hands and puts them down, heavy, on the piano keys. Nothing. 

“What was that?” Zayn asks. 

“Give it a second,” Harry says. He puts a finger of his other hand on Zayn’s lips and they wait, until it happens. The faintest echo, a chord that sounds far away and off tune, but it’s there. It happens. 

“Oh,” Zayn says. 

“You have to stay, Zayn,” Harry says, “you do make a difference. You heard it. You saw the grass last time too, you have to stay.”

“I can’t, I’m not the answer, I can’t break your curse,” Zayn says. 

“You could slow it down, maybe. You do something, I know you do, you know it too,” Harry says, grabbing Zayn’s hand tighter. 

“I’m not, I don’t belong anywhere, you know that, I can’t be a part of stories or answers or curses, that’s not how it works,” Zayn says.

“Please, Zayn,” Harry says.

“I,” Zayn starts, he can’t. He honestly just, he can’t. He does have a thought though, he does, “Harry, what was the name of your friend, the sheriff who vanished?”

“Why?” Harry asks, “How does that matter?”

“I think it might matter a lot,” Zayn says.

“Liam,” Harry says, “His name was Liam.”

“Okay,” Zayn says, breathing. That’s. Okay. Maybe, it’s. It’s such a long shot, but maybe he can break Harry’s curse after all. Maybe if he can bring Liam back, maybe if the first thing to go missing is back, then everything will stop. 

“I don’t understand what that has to do with anything,” Harry says, “and you didn’t answer me. Will you stay?”

“I think, I think I found him,” Zayn says. 

“What?” Harry asks. 

“I think I found Liam, by accident, jumping realms, I’m almost sure he’s your Liam, your friend.”

“You found him?”

“Yeah, so. Listen, I’m going to leave, but it’s only to get him, okay? I’m going to leave but I’m going to go get him and I’ll be back, and maybe with him here, I mean, that’s something you didn’t know to try,” Zayn says. 

“You’ll come back, though?” Harry says. 

“I’ll bring him back,” Zayn says. 

“No but, if you can’t find him, or if it takes too long, you’ll come back?” Harry asks. 

“Sure,” Zayn says. 

“And if you do find him, you’ll be here too, the three of us,” Harry prompts.

“Yeah,” Zayn says, “for a little, I’ll, I want to help, Harry, you know I do. I just, I can’t be the one. Maybe he is, though.”

“Okay,” Harry says, and then he leans in and kisses Zayn, again, still desperate, “just come back.”

“I will,” Zayn says.

“Promise?” 

“Promise,” Zayn says, putting on his hat and closing his eyes as another far away sounding musical chord plays. 

****

He can’t find Niall. He stops to see Niall because his head is spinning and everything is hard and fucked up and he doesn’t know what to do, not really, and Harry might be gone forever when he gets back and Louis told him never to come back and he doesn’t know how he’s going to convince Liam to come back and he just wants to talk to Niall. And he can’t find him. When he jumps to people he always finds them. Both Louis and Niall are always moving, hardly ever in the same place, but Zayn jumps to the feeling of them and it always works. Always. 

He can’t fucking find Niall. He’s just. He’s not there. He’s not anywhere. 

Zayn has never been so scared. 

****

He jumps to Liam’s realm, shaking. He’s gone straight for Liam, for the feel of him, even if that’s dangerous because Liam doesn’t know. He finds himself in the police station, again. Thankfully Liam’s back is turned, so Zayn takes a few steps backwards and then walks in like he’d come in the door, willing himself to be normal. 

“Hey you,” Liam says, turning around.

“Hey,” Zayn says. 

“Are you okay?” Liam asks. Normal isn’t working so well, then.

“I’m, no, honestly, I’m not,” Zayn says. He feels rushed and desperate.

“Okay, did you, I mean, we don’t have to get drinks, or we could, I mean, did you want to talk?” Liam asks. 

“Let’s walk, yeah? I, I think I need to tell you something,” Zayn says. 

“Okay,” Liam says, “let me lock up.”

“Can you just leave like this, being sheriff?”

“I told you, not a lot to do.” Liam says, hitting lights and putting keys in his jacket pocket.

“The first night we met, you were up all night working,” Zayn says. 

“That was something else,” Liam says. 

“Something else?”

“I, okay, this is weird? But the longer I stay up, the less sleep I have, the more I push myself, it’s like, I don’t remember, but I feel like I could,” Liam says. 

“Oh.”

“I know it’s weird.”

“It’s not,” Zayn says. Liam leads him out and locks the door. 

“So what’s wrong?” Liam asks.

“This is going to sound sort of unbelievable,” Zayn says. 

“I’m listening.”

“I know you don’t know me, and I know after you hear this might not want to, but, my friend is in trouble, I think all my friends are, and I think I need you to help them,” Zayn says.

“Oh, like, officially? As sheriff? I know there are some tough people a few towns over, if it’s, is it a thing like that?” 

“No,” Zayn says. 

“No?”

“It’s about, where I’m from, where I think you’re from,” Zayn says. 

“I thought you weren’t from anywhere,” Liam says. 

“I’m, okay, so. There are other worlds, other universes, other realms,” Zayn says. 

“What?”

“I know, but. I have this, thing, and it’s,” Zayn stops and runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. Liam grabs his hand, sending a jolt through Zayn’s whole body.

“Why don’t you just start at the beginning? It sounds like you need to tell me who you are, like who you are might be part of who I am?” Liam says. He hasn’t run away yet or anything, and the place their hands are connected is still warm and pulsing. 

“Okay, yeah. I’m- I can jump from realm to realm, from land to land. I put on this hat I’ve had since I was eight, and I close my eyes, and I’m somewhere new. It’s a gift, it runs in the family, it skips two generations at a time, so it’s rare. The oldest member of my family, my great grandmother, she could tell when I was a baby, and she left the hat for me- you have to have the gift to use the hat, and you have to have the hat to use the gift. It’s just. Magic. But, when I got older and I started jumping, I would go away for longer and longer. I wanted to see everything, I wanted to be a pirate. And one time, after I was gone, I came back, and there was, there was nothing.” Zayn says. 

“Nothing?”

“I went home, only I couldn’t. It was there, but I couldn’t see it anymore,” Zayn says.

“You couldn’t see it?”

“I was standing there, trying to figure out where it had gone, and this old man came up to me and told me I couldn’t ever come back, that people like me, with my gift, didn’t get homes. That it was the trade-off. I’d jumped so much, I’d been gone so long, that I’d never be able to go home again, never be able see it, or anyone, ever again,” Zayn says. Liam squeezes his hand.

“How old were you?”

“Seventeen,” Zayn says. 

“Oh,” Liam says, “wow.”

“Yeah. He said, the old man, he called my gift a curse, he said I could travel the realms but never have a home, that I could never really be a part of life, of anyone’s family, of anyone’s anything. And.”

“And?” Liam prompts. Zayn pauses, because this is the part no one knows. Harry, Louis, and Niall know the first part, know what he’s just said. The last part is harder, though. 

“And, if I stay, if I stay somewhere too long, if I stay until it feels like home, and then I jump, I’ll never be able to return to that place again. It will be lost to me. And if I just stay, if I just settle down then, eventually, I’ll vanish. I’m not meant to stay,” Zayn says. Liam sucks in a long breath. 

“Fuck,” Liam says. 

“Yeah,” Zayn says, “You, you believe me?”

“I do,” Liam says. 

“Why?” Zayn asks. Liam picks up their joined hands and lifts them higher.  
“I feel it, this connection. I don’t know who I am, but I know I’m connected to you,” Liam says. 

“Yeah, I think- in my friend Harry’s kingdom, there is this curse,” Zayn says.

“Like your curse?” Liam asks. 

“Bigger. The whole kingdom is slowly disappearing, and I think, I think you disappeared from it first. They had a young sheriff five years ago, and he vanished one day, and I think. I think he’s you.”

“Oh,” Liam says. 

“Yeah,” Zayn says.

“Really?”

“Really, and I need you to come back with me, I think you could save the kingdom,” Zayn says. Liam frowns.

“But, if it’s vanishing, and we go back there, and we’re there when it happens, then will we, um, vanish too? Forever vanish?” Liam asks. 

“I think we could stop it,” Zayn says, he sort of means it too. He wants to mean it.

“If we can’t, though?”

“Then yes,” Zayn says. 

“Right,” Liam says. 

“I know it’s a lot, but, it’s kind of urgent. I’m sorry.”

“No, I get it. You could like- you could take me there?”

“Yeah,” Zayn says, “you believe me still?”

“I shouldn’t, but I do,” Liam says. 

“Okay, so, if you keep holding my hand, and I put my hat on, and we close our eyes, we’ll be there,” Zayn says. 

“Okay,” Liam says. He sounds a bit like he might be sick. Zayn squeezes his hand tighter and thinks of Harry and. Nothing. Nothing happens. Fuck. Fuck. 

“Fuck,” Zayn says. 

“What happened?” Liam says. 

“I can’t, it’s not working, I can’t get there,” Zayn says. 

“Can’t,” Liam repeats.

“Fuck, I think they lost magic. It was music yesterday,” Zayn says. He hopes that’s what it is, that they’ve just lost magic, that Harry is still there, somewhere. 

“Lost magic,” Liam says. He still looks sort of sick, but something like doubt is starting to creep into his voice. This is. Everything is awful. Zayn needs to think, he has to figure this out. He closes his eyes for a minute. They have to get to Harry, but they can’t go by magic. They’ll have to- Louis. He’s going to need Louis. 

“You’re by the water here, right?” Zayn asks, “This town, you have docks?”

“Yes,” Liam says. 

“Okay, I’m going to go get help, and I really need you to wait by the docks,” Zayn says. Liam frowns, but then he looks down at their hands and nods.

“Okay. I’ll wait,” Liam says. Zayn squeezes his hand again, and jumps off on his own.

This is probably a terrible plan, but it’s all he’s got.

****

After his crew had been jailed, Louis had traded a load of gold to a fairy for a spell that kept anyone he hadn’t invited off of his ship. Zayn hopes Louis wasn’t serious enough to uninvite him, or he’ll be opening his eyes underwater. 

He lands on solid ground. 

“I told you not to come back,” Louis says, but he wraps Zayn in a hug as he does, steadying him. Zayn hugs him back.

“Fuck, Lou,” he says, “fuck, fuck, fuck everything is a disaster.”

“I know,” Louis says, “I can’t see them anymore with telescope.”

“I think they lost magic,” Zayn says, “I can’t get in, either.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. I think- I have this idea,” Zayn says. 

“Okay,” Louis says. 

“And I really need you,” Zayn says. He can feel Louis nod against him. 

“What’s the plan?”

“Well, I can’t get in by magic, but you can sail close, right?”

“Right up to the boundary line. Then the alarm goes. Enchanted line and all.”

“Okay, so we need to go get someone, and then we need to sail in, as close as you can get. I’m going to need you to trip the alarm, and then we have to count on Harry to know it’s us,” Zayn says. 

“If he’s still there,” Louis says. 

“Yeah.”

“Who are we getting, your wolf friend?” 

“I don’t know where he is,” Zayn says. 

“What?”

“Niall, he’s. I don’t know, but I can’t find him,” Zayn says. 

“You’re having a pretty shit week, aren’t you?” Louis asks, wincing. 

“Pretty shit,” Zayn agrees.

“I’m sorry.”

“I think we can fix it.”

“I’m sorry for more than that,” Louis says. They’re still wrapped in each other, breathing. Zayn is kind of afraid to let him go.

“I know, me too,” Zayn says. 

“So who are we getting then? I need a name to invite them, that’s how the magic works.”

“Liam, Harry’s Liam? The vanished sheriff? I found him,” Zayn says. 

“You’re a real hero, you know that?” Louis says. He delivers it like a joke, but he runs a hand down Zayn’s spine as he says it, and Zayn knows he means it. 

“We’ll see.”

“Okay, where is he? Where are we going?” Louis asks.

“You know how we always wanted to see if we could make the whole ship jump realms?” 

“Yeah?”

“It’s time to test it,” Zayn says. He’s thought about this before, he’s read everything he can find. He can only carry one person at a time, but he’s almost positive that if he has a vessel of some sort, he can carry it, along with multiple people, across realms. Then again, he is also dealing with a cursed version of the gift, so it might actually just kill them both. 

“Perfect,” Louis says. 

“You know- you know we might die, right?” Zayn asks into Louis’ shoulder. 

“A hero’s death with you at my side? There’s no way I’d rather go out,” Louis says. 

“Let’s do this,” Zayn says. Louis lets him go and beams at him, brushing a quick kiss across his lips as he does. Zayn puts his hat on and concentrates harder than he’s ever concentrated in his life, gripping Louis’ hand as he does. They hold on tight, even when it starts to feel like the world is ripping. 

****

“Zayn? Zayn? Please don’t be dead,” Louis’ voice is saying. Zayn opens his eyes. He has no idea where he is. Louis, the boat, but they’re not in the right realm for that, he’s sure of it, and is that- Liam?

“I don’t think I’m dead,” Zayn says, blinking.

“Me either,” Louis says. His grin is sort of wavery, though. 

“Where?” Zayn asks, reaching out for Louis’ hand.

“Right. Sorry, we’re on our ship, you took us across the realms to get Liam, who was Harry’s sheriff before he vanished. Now we have to get back to Harry and save the day, somehow,” Louis says. 

“He didn’t know that?” Liam asks, sounding puzzled and far away.

“I always need a minute to readjust, sometimes it’s harder than others,” Zayn says. 

“Oh,” Liam says. 

“You didn’t tell me Liam here didn’t remember,” Louis says, pulling Zayn up.

“We were in a hurry,” Zayn says. 

“You really came,” Liam says, walking over, “I waited so long at the docks, I thought maybe you wouldn’t, that I had imagined you, even.”

“Thanks for waiting,” Zayn says. 

“Are you going to be able to get us back? That looked painful for you on the way here. I had to find Liam without you. Not that that it was hard- I just yelled Liam and the only person on the docks scampered over- but still,” Louis says. 

“I think I know how to do it better this time,” Zayn says. 

“Good,” Louis says, “Liam, you can be my lieutenant.”

“Okay.” Liam says, he nods, his eyes are on Zayn, though and he’s biting his lip again.

“We have a day to save,” Louis says. He stands up and pulls Zayn with him. 

“What’s the plan?” Liam asks.

“We’re going to sail in and trip the alarm and hope Harry can take it from there,” Zayn says. 

“The alarm?” Liam asks. 

“I was banished,” Louis says. 

“Oh,” Liam says, he looks a little sick again. Zayn reaches for his hand with the hand that’s not holding Louis’. 

“At least we know the trip won’t kill us!” Louis says. He looks better and sounds better than Zayn has seen him in ages. 

“Kill us,” Liam repeats. 

“A hero has to take risks!” Louis says. Then he drops Zayn’s hands and turns to Liam very seriously and grabs both of his hands, pulling him away from Zayn, and says, “I fought with all I had for this ship you’re standing on, and it’s all I have in the world- well, it and Zayn- and no one is allowed on it unless I invite them, the magic won’t allow it. So now that you’re here, you have to be with us one hundred percent. I know you don’t remember, but you have to believe and you have to be in this with us. A ship only works if everyone on it is loyal to their captain, so if you don’t believe, we’re going to have to leave you here and save the day without you. Zayn believes you’re the key, though, and Zayn is the smartest person I know, so. But you have to be all in.”

“Lou,” Zayn says, but he’s not really protesting. Hearing Louis talk like that, it’s- it’s been too long, and Zayn has missed it. 

“It’s okay,” Liam says. He sounds shaky, but he swallows and says, “I believe, I don’t know why I do, but I do. I believe and I’m in. I feel it with you, too.”

“Feel what?” Louis asks, beaming.

“The connection. Not the same as with Zayn, but I guess- maybe it’s because you’re part of where I belong, but I feel it. I’ll, I’ll be loyal, I won’t let you down, either of you,” Liam says. Zayn feels like his heart might actually explode. 

“You’ll let me be your captain? This is a mission we’re on,” Louis says.

“Captain,” Liam says, pulling one of hands free to salute. Louis pulls him into a giant spinning hug.

“You found a good one,” Louis says. 

“Yeah,” Zayn agrees. Louis puts a flustered-looking Liam down and then says, “okay, so, this is my part. I’m going to need all of us to hold hands, and close our eyes and then I’m going to concentrate on taking the ship- which will work since we’re on the ship- and then it’s up to you, Lou.”

“Do it,” Louis says, grabbing one of his hands and one of Liam’s.

“I’m ready,” Liam says, grabbing Zayn’s hand. Zayn closes his eyes- his hat has never left his head this time- and focuses, and the world tears again.

****

The wake up is a little less jarring this time, although that might be because Liam appears to have never let go of his hand. It’s a plus, to be sure. On the negative side, it’s pouring, it’s fucking pouring and the wind is hollering. Louis is gripping the wheel, looking sort of delighted in spite of the danger.

“Louis!” Zayn calls, smiling up at Liam as he does. 

“Welcome back!” Louis says. 

“How close are we?” Zayn asks. 

“I’m not actually sure!” Louis says, “are you any good at navigating, Liam?”

“I don’t know,” Liam says. 

“Come look at the stars for me, would you? I can’t exactly let go of the wheel long enough to look,” Louis says. 

“I don’t know these stars,” Liam says, but he’s standing up anyway, brushing a fond hand across Zayn’s forehead as he does. 

“Sure you do, you just have to remember,” Louis says.

“He might not, he might have to be back to remember,” Zayn says. 

‘It’s worth a try,” Louis says, “because otherwise we might be going in entirely the wrong direction.” He whips a compass out of his pocket and passes it to Liam. Zayn stands up, shaky, and joins them. He wishes he could help, but actual sailing has never been his strong point. Despite his year or so of piracy, he’s never liked water, never gotten a feel for steering a ship across or for finding his way with stars.

“Okay, it’s hard to see in the rain, but I think I can- what am I looking for?” Liam asks. 

“Home,” Louis says. 

“I can’t, I don’t know, there are constellations and patterns but they don’t mean anything to me, they should though, right? I think they should.” Liam says, he wraps his arms around himself, pulling his soaking wet sweater against his soaking wet body, which can’t be any help at all.

“You haven’t slept, have you?” Zayn asks.

‘Not in days,” Liam says. 

“Use it,” Zayn says. 

“No, fuck that,” Louis says, gripping the wheel a little white-knuckled now, “use magic.”

“I don’t have magic,” Liam says, “do I?”

“No- well, you might, I don’t know, but all curses can be broken, and memory loss is a pretty basic curse. This should be simple,” Louis says. 

“That’s not an answer,” Zayn says. Louis shakes his head. The ship lurches violently. 

“I don’t know how it works, but I do know it does. It’s old magic, but it works. Love works, and you know it does, Zayn,” Louis says. 

“Louis,” Zayn says.

“Any love. Curses get broken with love, the fairy who enchanted my ship told me. Why do you think we made it to Liam in the first place? How do you think this storm hasn’t killed us yet? We’re protected right now, but I’d like us to not die now, and I see the two of you, and Liam said he feels connected more strongly to you than anyone else, so please, go try, because if he remembers and can read the stars maybe we can actually save Harry and the kingdom and all my men,” Louis says. 

“Zayn?” Liam asks. 

‘I can’t,” Zayn says, “I’m not meant to be part of stories, I’m not, I can’t break a curse, any curse.”

“You’re in the middle of a damn hero’s quest, Zayn. Hate to break it to you, but you’re already in the middle of this story, so let it go and do it, okay?”

“Liam,” Zayn says, walking over, rocking with the ship, drenched with rain. Louis is right, he’s already in the middle of this. He’s already playing a part. And if it can save the day, if it stops Harry and thousands of other people from dying, then. He can do this, he save the day, and then he can go find Niall, and then he’ll just. He’ll figure it out.

“Yes?” Liam asks. 

“They say, all curses can be broken, and one of the swiftest ways is supposed to be True Love’s Kiss. I know we just met, so we can’t possibly be, or know, and I can’t really anyway, but it’s worth a try, Louis is right, and-” Zayn never finishes, because Liam is kissing him. Soft and sweet and Zayn feels it from his hair to his feet, feels it like the rain has stopped, feels like Liam is home.  
“Well?” Louis says when they pull back, looking pleased.

“Give it a minute,” Zayn says, breathing hard. Liam stares for a minute, and then his eyes go wide and his mouth drops open.

“Oh,” Liam says, “Right then. Let’s go home.”

“I told you,” Louis says, smirking. Liam bolts for the telescope, looking up at the stars, his feet tapping. 

“Straight, Louis, keep going, we’re on track if you can just hold it straight, and we don’t lose the wind, we’ll be there any minute,” Liam says. 

“Liam?” Zayn asks. Liam turns his head back for a minute and reaches for Zayn’s hand. 

“Thank you,” he says.

“Yeah,” Zayn says, a lump rising in his throat.

“You remember, then?” Zayn asks.

“I remember,” Liam says. Louis taps his foot a little and clears his throat,

“You two are very sweet, but eyes on the stars so we don’t die, Liam?” 

“Right!” Liam says, turning his head back. Zayn has never felt so good and also so wrong-footed in all his life.

“Still straight on?” Louis asks.

“Nearly there,” Liam says. “The alarm was put up after I left of course, but we’re nearing the kingdom’s waters.”

“The alarm is on both sides, right?” Zayn asks, suddenly remembering that if they’ve lost magic, their enchanted alarm system might also be down. 

“If it’s not, then I think we should be able to just sail right in,” Louis says.

“Right,” Zayn says.

“Um,” Liam says. 

“Yes?” Louis asks.

“I think we have company,” Liam says. 

Which is when a voice suddenly booms, “you are hereby trespassing and under arrest by order of the king.”

“Is that the alarm?” Zayn asks.

“No,” Louis says. 

A minute later they’re surrounded by smaller boats and the voice booms, “you are surrounded, we will fire if you do not cooperate. Abandon your ship and come with us now, pirates.”

“Their fucking kingdom is disappearing and this is what they do with their resources,” Louis says. 

“Are we, um, complying?” Liam asks. 

“I for one did not come this far to be shot,” Louis says. “Zayn?”

“Yeah, we can maybe break out and sneak to Harry? At least we know everyone is still there,” Zayn says. 

“Right,” Liam says. 

They’re put in handcuffs as soon as they step off their ship.

***  
They’re marched in handcuffs, guns at their back, to a part of the castle Zayn has never been to before.

“This is what we get for doing nice things. You try and save people and they try to shoot you,” Louis says. He’s rewarded with a jab in the back from the guard closest to him.

“Behave,” Zayn whispers. 

“You’re no fun,” Louis hisses back.

“I think I know what we have to do, if we can ever get to Harry,” Liam says, whispering in Zayn’s ear when they’re lined up behind a door. 

“You people ought to be nicer with the time you have left!” Louis calls as the door slams and they’re left handcuffed in the dark. 

“What do you mean?” Zayn asks.

“Before I vanished I was working on it, on how to break it, and I think i might have been on to something, I think that might be why I went first,” Liam says. 

“Harry’s tried everything,” Zayn says. 

“Louis said,” Liam says. Zayn raises an eyebrow.

“While you were were coming back around before,” Liam explains, “and I know, but I don’t think- this is something he wouldn’t have been able to try.”

“Why are you two whispering and why aren’t there any lights?” Louis says. 

“We lost electricity two days ago. Lanterns still work, though,” Harry’s voice says out of the dark, and then a match is lit, and suddenly there is light and there is Harry, standing in front of them. 

“Harry!” someone- probably all of them, say. 

“Are you rescuing us?” Louis asks, grinning. 

“From who, myself?” Harry asks.

“What?” Zayn asks.

“You had us arrested?” Louis asks.

“How else was I supposed to get a banned pirate captain and his crew- which he is expressly forbidden by law to have, by the way- into my castle?” Harry says, coming forward and unlocking all of them. 

“You’re a genius,” Louis says. 

“Hey Lou,” Harry says, clutching Louis’ hands a little when he unlocks them. 

“Haz,” Louis says back, grinning. 

“Thanks for being part of this,” Harry says. 

“You know how I like an adventure,” Louis says. Harry grins, sort of watery. He moves over to unlock Liam, pulling him into a tight hug as he does. 

“Liam,” Harry says, simply, “welcome home.”

“Glad to be here,” Liam says, as sincerely as someone still soaking wet and handcuffed and in castle that actually appears to be crumbling around them can be, “I have a plan.”

“You always do,” Harry says back, letting him out of the hug and unlocking him.

“Were the handcuffs really necessary?” Louis says as Harry moves to Zayn. 

“I thought they were a nice touch,” Harry says. 

“I can think of ways they’d be nicer,” Louis says. And that’s, like. Somehow, even though they might all be about to die, this has all made Louis be _Louis_ again, and Zayn is just, he’s really glad he got to be alive long enough to see that. 

“Later,” Harry says, “we have to, you know, not vanish first.”

“Details,” Louis says. 

“You came back,” Harry says to Zayn, resting their foreheads together for a minute, “thank you.”

“I promised,” Zayn says. 

“Our Zayn has been a real hero,” Louis says. 

“He has,” Zayn agrees.

“Zayn is always a hero,” another voice says. 

“Niall?” Zayn asks in shock, looking around and rubbing at his newly-freed wrists a little.

“Hey,” Niall says, stepping out of the shadows, “thought I’d let Harry go first.”

“I thought you were dead,” Zayn says, pulling Niall into a giant hug.

“Almost was, but then I came here, because I knew you’d mentioned Harry, and I thought, you know, if anyone could give a wolf some protection, it might be my friend’s friend the prince,” Niall says. 

“Except that this whole place is about to vanish and all of us with it, that sounds clever,” Louis says. 

“Yeah, at least no one is chasing me,” Niall says, pulling back from Zayn and shrugging. 

“No, he has to be here,” Liam says, breathing excitedly. 

“Liam? I mean, I know you’re Liam, but I thought you were Harry’s Liam, not my Liam,” Niall says, suddenly bounding over to Liam. 

“I thought that was you! This is- okay- I think we might not die!” Liam says, and then he and Niall are hugging.

“Wait, what?” Harry says. 

“Okay, you remember when the curse first settled and were trying to solve it, and you and I would stay up all night, thinking of ways, and then I went off for a few weeks, looking?” Liam says. 

“Yeah?” Harry says. Somewhere behind him, a wall stops being a wall.

“I found Niall, and also answers. He was on the run, looking for a cure at the time,” Liam says.

“All curses can be broken, have you heard?” Niall says, a little mockingly. 

“Right, but some are harder, like Niall’s, or yours, Zayn, or this,” Liam says. 

“So?” Louis asks. 

“So you were right, on the ship. It is love. All curses are broken with love. Some just take more love,” Liam says. 

“True Love,” Harry says, nodding. 

“No, well, yes, but it’s more than that,” Liam says. 

“Extra True Love?” Louis suggests.

“Um, the more is literal,” Liam says. They all stare at him for a minute.

“What?” Zayn asks. 

“The more love, the more powerful a curse it can destroy, but it has to be real and right,” Liam says. 

“Liam, this is a beautiful story, about love and all, but if there’s something we need to do, I’m thinking we need to do it quickly because that fire is flickering in midair now,” Louis says. 

“Right! Um, I think it’s going to take all five of us, like, I think it has to be all five of us,” Liam says. 

“All five of us what?” Niall asks.

“Well, let’s. Can we try- everyone hold hands,” Liam says. Everyone shrugs and grasps each other’s hands, making a circle. The rain stops instantly, the sudden lack of pounding on the roof and water coming in from the missing wall startling them all.

“Whoa,” Niall says. 

“That’s what I mean,” Liam says, “see? It has to be all five of us.”

“So, if we have an orgy, we won’t die? I’m not objecting, mind you, just clarifying,” Louis says. 

“No, I get it!” Harry says, excited, “I get it! You’re not entirely wrong, Lou, but I get it!”

“You do?” Liam asks.

“Yeah, it’s like, Zayn, when we held hands and the piano made sound, remember? And when I kissed you and it wasn’t enough, but it was something!” Harry says. 

“Yes!” Liam says. 

“The three of us were holding hands when we made it here, from whatever realm you were stuck in, Li, and it was after you said you believed, that you’d be loyal, and Zayn, we thought we might die the first time we went and I kissed you and we’re alive,” Louis says, eyes gleaming. 

“So if you hadn’t shown up when you did, Niall, this would all probably be vanished already,” Harry says.

“Cuddling with you saved us?” Niall asks. 

“It didn’t hurt!” Liam says, bouncing on his heels.

“And I remembered, because True Love’s Kiss does work for some things- but sometimes it takes more,” Liam says. 

“Okay, but we can’t just all kiss each other until the castle stops falling apart?” Zayn asks. 

“Why not?” Louis asks. 

“Well that’s, I mean,” Zayn says. 

“I don’t think it needs to be kissing, although, it can be. But the True Love’s Kiss thing is real, my memories are proof,” Liam says. 

“Right then,” Harry says, and then, while still holding hands with everyone else, he leans into to Louis and kisses him, “I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”

“Was a bit hard to do while I was banished,” Louis says.

“That’s not my fault, and if we live I’ll fix it, I will,” Harry says. 

“I know,” Louis says, leaning into kiss him again. 

“Don’t let go of their hands,” Liam says as Harry and Louis step in closer to each other, still kissing. The wall reappears.

“It’s working!” Niall says. 

“We’re going to be okay, us, my people, everyone,” Harry says, they’re all stepping closer to each other now, heads together, hands laced. The castle is starting to rebuild itself around them.

“Don’t let go,” Liam says again.

“My crew, they’re going to be okay too,” Louis says. 

“Yeah,” Harry says. 

“We’re breaking it,” Liam says. From somewhere the electricity flickers, bright lights shining all around them.

“I,” Zayn says, then stops. Harry turns his eyes on him.

“You did this, Zayn,” he says. 

“I didn’t,” Zayn says.

“You did, you found Liam, you figured out how to get him here, you did this, you’re the hero,” Harry says. 

“You are,” Louis agrees.

“Yeah,” Niall chimes in.

“You saved us,” Liam says. 

“I’m not supposed to, I-” Zayn starts and then he looks at the four people around him, all joined together as the kingdom rights itself and he says, “I love you all.” Liam leans forward at that and kisses him again, and it still feels like home. Then Niall leans in, grinning and says, 

“Listening to all this I’m feeling left out, only one here not to kiss you,” Niall says, leaning his lips to Zayn’s.

“I still think we all need to kiss each other, to make sure we’ve saved the day, and also because I agree with Zayn, I love all of you,” Louis says, leaning into kiss Harry again as he does, pulling on Harry’s hair, like maybe it’s, maybe the two of them are even more than the rest of them being more. Zayn gets that, he thinks. He hopes he and Liam are too.

“Is that an order there, captain?” Liam asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Liam, have I told you how desperately fond of you I am already?” Louis says, leaning over to kiss Liam. 

“It goes both ways,” Liam says. 

“It had better,” Louis says, pulling back, “although I believe we’re in Harry’s castle, so we have to do what he says.”

“No,” Harry says, “I told you, I told you years ago, I just want to break the curse, I just wanted to save my people. As long as they’re okay, as long as I know, I’d come sail the world with you in a heartbeat.”

“We’ll work it out,” Louis says, looking a little overcome. “Can’t leave your father in charge, what with his banning people in all.”

“We will,” Harry agrees. 

“But, for now, if you’re saying I’m still in charge, then I’m going to go ahead and kiss Niall, if that’s okay with him,” Louis says. 

“Do I look like I’m objecting?” Niall says, leaning in. 

“Is that firsts for everybody then?” Liam asks. Zayn raises an eyebrow,

“Is it?” he asks. 

“Well, I don’t know about Harry and Niall, but by my count that’s everyone, then,” Liam says. 

“It’s everyone,” Harry says. 

“This is, this is impossible is what this is,” Zayn says. 

“This is magic,” Louis says, “So firsts covered, we can keep all kissing, right?” 

“Yes,” Harry agrees. 

“Yes,” Liam says a beat later, leaning into Zayn again. 

“Wait,” Louis says, “wait, wait.”

“What?” Harry says. 

“Zayn,” Louis says.

“Yes?” Zayn says, they’re all still so close, all their air shared. The castle appears to be back to its former glory, almost completely. 

“You’re staying, right? You’re not jumping out on us tonight?” Louis asks. Zayn freezes a little. 

“You have to stay, we have to keep it alive. This is what saved us,” Harry says. 

“I’m not supposed to stay. Those are the rules. I’m not allowed to have a home,” Zayn says, chewing on his lip, unsure. He wants to be wrong, he wants so badly to be wrong. 

“Cursed,” Liam says, “you said he said you were cursed by that provision.”

“Curses were broken tonight,” Niall says, “I feel different, I think.”

“You do?” Zayn asks.

“Even if you’re not, you’re protected here now,” Harry says.

“Which is a lot like it being broken,” Niall says. 

“But,” Zayn says. 

“You couldn’t have a home?” Louis asks.

“I told you that,” Zayn says, thrown.

“No, you told me you couldn’t stay,” Louis says. 

“Me too,” Harry says.

“Because my home disappeared! I can’t have a home,” Zayn says. He almost says couldn’t. He wants so badly to believe what Liam said, that he could be home. That he could belong somewhere. 

“Home isn’t a place, it’s people, home is people who love you, and you’ve always had that,” Louis says, shaking his head like Zayn is an idiot.

“But,” Zayn says. 

“I always felt like you were home when you came to see me,” Harry says.

“Me too, you were always home with me,” Louis says.

“Me too,” Niall says. 

“I let you sleep in my apartment when you were a stranger,” Liam says, nodding in agreement. 

“Just trust it, Z,” Louis says. 

“If this, what did you call it Liam, more love? If our more can stop an entire kingdom from disappearing, I think you can stay put a while,” Niall says. 

“I want to,” Zayn admits. As he says, strains of music play from outside, a joyous beat starting up.

“The people are celebrating,” Harry says. 

“Can we go rescue my men?” Louis asks, “and continue all of this later, or forever?”

“I stole keys earlier, just in case,” Harry says, grinning.

“I love you,” Louis says. 

“I know,” Harry says. They all break apart then, cautiously, and then head through the castle, now gleaming and wonderful, green grass and fresh flowers out the window and music everywhere as they walk. 

“I love you extra special,” Louis says in Harry’s ear.

“I know,” Harry says again. 

Zayn is still trying to puzzle through it all, how it works, how this much love is real, how it works that he loves all of them different- that he might love Liam extra special, as Louis had put it- but he does love them all. That they’ve done this thing, that they’ve stopped this disaster, with love and with each other. He can’t quite figure it out. Liam grabs his hand again, though, and pulls him aside. Louis, Harry and Niall grin and wave, heading off ahead to the dungeon.

“Thank you,” Liam says again.

“Thank you,” Zayn says, “You figured it out.”

“You brought me here,” Liam says, grinning, “do you think I can sleep, now that I’m home?”

“You could try,” Zayn says, “Did you want to, um, come with me?”

“Where?” 

“My room,” Zayn says, pulling Liam off to the room he’s always refused to call his own. “For tonight, let’s just think about how we won, how we did it.”

“How we’re not dead?” Liam says, grinning. 

“Exactly,” Zayn says.

“Deal,” Liam says. 

 

****

The next morning when Zayn wakes up, with Liam curled around him, he remembers exactly where he is. When he looks over and sees that sometime in the night, another bed has been put in his bedroom, and Louis, Harry and Niall are tangled in a pile next to him and Liam, Zayn knows that where he is home.


End file.
